Plants for bees

Plant features

Great flowers start with pollination, and for that you need bees. Find out how to get the busiest garden insects to work for you.

Gardens are extremely important for bumblebees, and vice versa. Bees need flowers for sustenance, and flowers need bees for pollination. But it's important the flowers you grow provide the food bees need.

Preferred flowers

Single flowers

Most double flowers are of little use, as they're too elaborate. Some are bred without male and female parts, while others have so many petals bees can't get to the nectar and pollen. So single dahlias are popular with many bees, while doubles are usually ignored.

Tubular-shaped flowers

Flowers for all seasons

It's vital you provide flowers throughout the bumblebee's life-cycle, from March to September. It's also a good idea to have at least two nectar- or pollen-rich plants in flower at any one time during this period. The nectar feeds the adult bee, while the pollen is collected to feed the young. Of course, the more flowers you have, the more attractive your garden is to bees, so you can never have too many!

Discuss this plant feature

This year, having grown camassias for the first time , I find the bees love them. The bees need all the help we can give them at the present time, not only because of the mysterious decimation they are going through, but also because more and more gardeners are opting to grow their own fruit and veg. so their(the bees') services are more in demand!

as bees are in danger at the moment I am going to put in a lot of plants that bees like, I am going to plant lots of lavender for them plus anything that atrracts them as I need them to pollinate my beans i used Hissop last year and the bees loved it and the Lavertera, the bees came out looking all pink as they were covered in pollen

very helpfull i have seen bees in my garden all winter they seem to be hibernating in my hedge i will be planting alot more flowers for them as we are really starting to grow our own veg and fruit now and we need them as much as they need our help now